Gaza war: International Court of Justice to rule on Israel’s request to halt military action

The UN’s highest court will decide if they should tell Israel to stop their actions in Gaza right away.

On Friday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will have a meeting about a case. South Africa is saying that Israel is doing very bad things, like killing many people from a particular group.

Both countries spoke when the case started two weeks ago. Israel strongly said no to the accusation.

The court’s decision against Israel is not able to be enforced, but it would still be very important in politics.

Over 25,000 Palestinians, mainly women and children, have been killed and many more hurt, according to the health ministry in Gaza. The violence started when the group Hamas attacked Israel.

The Hamas attack on October 7th killed around 1,300 people, mostly innocent people. The attackers also kidnapped about 250 people and took them back to Gaza.

South Africa is asking the court to stop Israel’s military actions towards Palestinians while they investigate claims of genocide. The decision on this is not going to happen for a long time, maybe even for years.


Israel was very upset when South Africa said they were committing genocide. They said South Africa was not telling the truth. It said it could protect itself and was only aiming at Hamas fighters, not people in Palestine.

It wanted the judges to reject South Africa’s request because it claimed the accusations of genocide were not true.

On Friday, 17 judges need to answer two questions before making a decision.

First, we need to see if South Africa’s claim against Israel fits the UN‘s rules for the 1948 Genocide Convention. The agreement, which Israel and South Africa have agreed to, explains what actions can be considered as genocide. At the beginning of the case, it is not very difficult to prove.

Furthermore, the judges can consider requests from other places besides South Africa. The panel should tell Israel to follow international law and make sure that it doesn’t stop food, water, or medicine from being delivered to people.

The ICJ can only give advice and opinions, but it doesn’t have the power to make decisions. Although its decisions are considered to have legal force, they cannot be enforced by the court. If Israel loses in court on Friday, they will probably just ignore the decision.

It would make Israel feel more pressure to stop fighting and make its allies work harder to help find a peaceful solution and get aid to the people who need it.